


The Next Best Day

by Balori



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Familial Love, Gen, Platonic Love, Reunion, Siblings being cute, Spoilers, griffin mcelroy has ruined my life, it'll be worth it, just catch up i promise, lup and taako, me desperately needing the sibling reunion, siblings having a reunion they desperately needed, there's no plot in this, this is absolutely a spoiler for basically everything at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 14:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11693565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balori/pseuds/Balori
Summary: SPOILERS/catch up to episode 68 before you read this!**When all is said and done, when the world is done being saved, sometimes the only thing you need is a good cry with the person you love most in the world. And/or a baller meal.





	The Next Best Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is all I've wanted since That Moment in Episode 67. I hope this provides some much-needed soothing for the entire fandom. (Also, for the sake of suspension of disbelief, pls assume Lup has her body back).

When all was said and done - when the world was saved, when the hunger was defeated, when the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts were underway, when Davenport could finally breathe, “We won,” with the weight of a century-and-then-some-long war - Lup went to find her brother. Taako had zipped away after a quick hug and kiss, saying something about, “You’ve been bone-dry for years, Lulu, go get you some.” 

It was a more than reasonable point.

But after peeling herself away from Barry and apologizing for having to leave so soon (though he understood - he always did), she made a beeline for Taako’s apartment that he shared with the other two losers. Lup was genuinely surprised she knew the way, but she supposed it was just osmosis from her time in the Umbra Staff. 

She wasn’t too worried about barging in on Taako and Kravitz together. It must be hard to coordinate schedules when your boyfriend’s the Grim Reaper - shit, that was still wild to think about. Barry didn’t have to worry about shepherding all the lives they couldn’t save to the Astral plane. It was a dark thought. Lup shook her head slightly, trying to clear it of the disparate years’ worth of debt she’d accrued, and gritted her teeth. Enough. It was done, and this time the victory didn’t have to come with caveats. Not entire worlds’ worth of caveats, anyway.

By the time she’d gotten to Taako’s apartment, the invasive guilt had all but vanished in favor of happiness at being able to see her brother whenever she wanted to again. Fighting the dopey smile on her face, Lup cleared her throat, threw back her shoulders, and then flung the doors open. Hands on her hips, she stuck her nose in the air and began to strut - a familiar way to invade his privacy.

“I know I’ve been gone for approximately a hot second, but you don’t need to make a big deal out of it _holy fuck_ -”

Catwalk cut short, Lup registered first the sight and then the aroma - god, there was no good word in any language for this smell, this memory - of home. Between two plush couches was a coffee table laden with hors d'oeuvres, starters, desserts, and in the middle, a massive, gorgeously braised turkey. It wasn’t just a memory of home - it was a single memory of the best day ever. And her brother, her favorite person across all the worlds and existences they had been in, her heart, had this veritable feast ready for her a _second time_. No wonder he’d sent her off to Barry so readily. Suddenly, she felt small, bashful. 

Taako looked up from the turkey he was carving and though he had the same lazy grin across his face that Lup knew as her own, he looked more...anxious? than she’d ever seen him. “Not too big a deal. So what’ll it be, chickadee?”

“You tell me, honeybee,” Lup replied, slowly making her way to the table adorned with all the food she ever loved. It smelt like their aunt’s kitchen. She picked up a spoon and went straight for a taste of the nearest sauce. Perfect hollandaise, and beside it, eggs benedict on the fluffiest Elvish muffins she’d ever seen. She didn’t even notice the eggs! “For real though, Taako, what? This is nuts.”

“You must have been in that umbrella too long, none of that is nuts.” 

“Weak.”

“Not my best. Sit, sit.”

As Lup complied, still dazed by the display before her, Taako popped behind a bar - Lucretia really spoilt these guys, huh? - and produced two glasses of what she immediately knew to be ice-cold mimosas. The two quietly toasted one another, and with practice, drained their glasses in unison. 

“To answer your question, Lulu, this is the first time we’ve ever gotten any of this…” Taako vaguely motioned at a window, at the stars beyond it, “...right. That we haven’t fucked up in some way. I think that’s worth a spread like this.” 

Lup registered, for the nth time in her life, how similar Taako’s thought process could be to hers. “Then where’s everyone else? This was a team effort, we should all celebrate. Fuck it, I’ll even dance with Merle this time.”

Taako made a face at the thought. “Grosseroni. Anyway, they’ll get their celebration soon. But, babe, it’s-”

He broke off, and Lup, finally looking up from the food before her, saw Taako staring at her with the same anxious expression on his face from earlier. She realized that Taako hadn’t looked away from her once, beyond retrieving the mimosas. She could feel her heart sink a little. And, sure enough, when Taako spoke again, it was measured, more deliberate than he had ever been in his entire life with her. “It’s…it’s not...everyday...your sister you didn’t know you’d forgotten comes back from the umbrella you didn’t know she was in.”

Taako was terrified. The sheer adrenaline of the apocalypse, the Hunger, didn’t allow any time to process everything they had learnt in the moments after they remembered. And while everyone reeled at the sheer weight of the lost years, no one else - save Barry - had to deal with the grief of losing and then forgetting and then getting back the person who was your entire life. Taako was ready to murder Lucretia in his grief. He was ready to blow up the entire fucking Bureau of Balance if it meant not having to remember his heart was lost to him. Then she was back, albeit phantasmal, and technically dead still, but she was back and he was whole again, and it wasn’t until he was done with the first batch of macaroons that it hit him how long he had gone without being Taako. And now that she was here-

“Lulu, you can’t leave me again, okay?”

“Taako-”

At some point he must have moved to the couch because suddenly, Taako was in his sister’s arms, sobbing into her neck while she held him tight, crying quietly herself. They hadn’t held each other in decades. The only person he ever cried to was Lup, and she had been gone so long. How did he survive without his twin? How did he think he’d spent his entire life without her at his back? All the years of being shuffled between family members, and he thought he had gone it alone? 

The word “twin” could never fully encompass what Taako and Lup were for one another. It was the ultimate form of self-love, seeing someone so entrenched in who you are as a person and knowing they felt the exact same. They weren’t cut from the same cloth, they were the same cloth, and in the minutes before he’d snapped the Umbra staff over his knee, Taako could feel himself unravel. And Lup, for all her bravado and grit and strength, in that umbrella on her own...

“How did you do it?” Taako croaked out once he was able to. “I couldn’t have done it, and I had the luxury of forgetting, but you didn’t have that.” He laughed shakily, “You were stuck in a fucking umbrella with all our memories together. And I- I didn’t know you, I didn’t get your signs, I didn’t even recognize your name.” He had to take another second to recover, before continuing with a wry, “And, before you say anything, just know that I’m going to be very disappointed if you tell me it wasn’t miserable.”

Lup couldn’t help laughing either, stroking Taako’s hair as he spoke. He had given up his glamour charm in favor of his new appearance, for the moment. She took a moment to memorize his face as it was now. Still her twin. Always her twin.

“Not gonna lie to you, bud, it _was_ miserable.”

“Jesus, don’t actually say that. Now I feel bad.”

She took his face in her hands, and he did the same. Taako had never been a physically affectionate person. He had never been an affectionate person, period. But Lup - and now Kravitz, he supposed, though that took some time to manifest - was always different. Their aunt told them stories of how even as babies, they would always gravitate together, rolling over and seeking warmth within one another. As children, teenagers, they had to huddle together for literal warmth at times. Lup was easily the more emotionally open of the two, but Taako was only ever vulnerable with her. And now that she was there again, within reach, he remembered how lonely he had felt for so many years.

“I tried so hard to make myself...known to you,” Lup started. It was wild, how long her life was put on hold, and how recently she was able to get it back. “It was an impossible task - an impossible ask of you to fight through the static and realize there was someone in your Umbra staff.” She paused. “Yeah, it sounds dumb out loud, but anyway - I screamed my throat raw until I realized that was a stupid pursuit. I literally put writing on the wall for you-” she paused to let him revel in the joke. Taako relaxed against her, their foreheads touching. Lup felt her heart swell. “It was lonely, Taako. Being literally right next to you for months and months without you knowing I was there.” 

“It was lonely for me too.”

“At least you had the boys and shit to do.”

“And don’t get me wrong, that was pretty rad, but I always felt like I was by myself anyway. I get it now.”

There was a moment of silence. Lup sighed. “I never gave up on you.”

“I know. For what it’s worth, neither did Barry or I when you disappeared before everything kicked off for real.”

“I know.”

They smiled at each other, twin smiles despite Taako’s plainer appearance. Lup could see the anxiety fade from Taako’s posture, the lines in his face becoming smooth again. She felt the tightness in her own shoulders dissipate too. Taako pulled away from Lup, leaning back against the couch. 

Then he frowned.

“Hold up. If you were by yourself, what happened back in Wonderland-”

Lup stood up quickly, startling Taako. “Holy fuck, the food! We completely forgot about it! It’s probably cold as shit now, womp womp, better get back to it!”

Rolling his eyes, but in a more-or-less chill way, Taako quickly cast a spell to heat up the food as Lup sat down on the couch across from him. They spent the rest of the evening demolishing everything between the two of them, talking incessantly: Taako catching Lup up on years spent apart, reminiscing on the stolen century and prior, and renewing vows to “fuck up Greg fucking Grimmaldis once and for all.” Perfect.

When every morsel of food had been consumed, the twins heaved contented sighs and slumped in their seats, smiling lazily at one another. They let the silence spread comfortably between them, knowing how much this moment would mean in the future. Finally, Taako beckoned Lup over, and the latter happily levitated back over to him, unwilling to physically move in her stupor. She closed her eyes as Taako started braiding her hair with deft hands, like they would take turns doing as children, creating beautiful, intricate braids to celebrate one another. It was almost meditative, how relaxed she felt in that moment.

After some time, Taako nudged her a little. “Whaddup?” 

“I got one last thing.”

Lup’s eyes opened wide. “No.”

“Fuck yes.”

To Lup’s delight, an abnormally large bottle of Grey Goose suddenly appeared in Taako’s hands. He solemnly presented the bottle to her and she snatched it out of his hands without ceremony, cradling the bottle close. “Are we getting slizzered tonight?”

“I figure we deserve it. The Goose is ours, but this base is pretty much a frat house, so I rounded up enough booze for everyone.” Taako winked and retrieved his Stone of Farspeech, waving it at her. “Kravitz should get here once he’s done being the Shepherd of Death or whatever. Oh, and I made him promise not to discuss the lich thing tonight.”

“Or ever.”

“For sure, like, ideally.”

“The lich thing was out of necessity anyway. ‘Sides, dying is whack. Can’t eat as a lich.”

“Natch.”

“Natch.”

Lup leaned over to kiss his forehead and then grinned widely. “I murdered the shit out of that creepy elf, by the way.”

“Damn straight. Now are we slamming this Goose or what?”


End file.
